How city of Boston is immortalizing Celtics legend Bill Russell

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There are many different tiers of greatness in professional sports. There’s award-winning greatness. There’s jersey retirement greatness. And for a select few, there’s greatness that transcends the sports world, in large part because the athlete whose career is being evaluated transcends the sports. Boston Celtics legend Bill Russell is one of those athletes.

By the day, the number of basketball fans who have firsthand experience watching Bill Russell play dwindles, but surely diehard hoops fans are at least casually aware of Russell’s success on the hardwood. But Bill Russell’s impact in the city of Boston transcended the parquet floor of the Garden. It had a reach that expanded deep into the city and all around the country.

Because of this, the city of Boston plans to honor Bill Russell on Monday afternoon in a manner that’s fitting of someone who worked hard to bring different groups of people together.

“The city of Boston plans to immortalize Celtics legend and civil rights activist Bill Russell,” writes Kaley Brown of Boston.com. “Boston announced Friday that it will rename the North Washington Street Bridge after Russell, changing it to the William Felton ‘Bill’ Russell Bridge.”

The October 21st ceremony will Bill Russell's widow, Jeannine, many past and present Celtics players, and Boston mayor Michelle Wu, who will make the renaming official. Wu made sure to clarify that the renaming isn’t just a basketball honor.

"The bridge renaming will honor his dedication to civil rights and the fostering of Boston's youth and young athletes," Wu's office said, per Kaley Brown.

Russell won 11 NBA Titles with the Boston Celtics as a player, including a pair (1968 and 1969) as Boston’s player-coach, but despite all of his unprecedented on-court success, his off-court relationship with the city in which he played and coached was damaged greatly because of the city’s troubling issues with racism. Even at the peak of his career with the Celtics, Russell and his black teammates weren’t welcomed with open arms out in the city like their white teammates were.

For that reason, Russell went decades without returning to the city after his retirement, only reconciling in 1999 when he returned for his jersey retirement ceremony. In the years that followed, Russell remained a well-respected and beloved all across the country, and in public figure in the city he once contentiously called home. He was even the recipient of a statue on City Hall Plaza in 2013.

It’s fitting that at the time of Bill Russell’s death in 2022, he was able to be properly honored not just around the NBA but in Boston as well. This distinction is further proof that Bi

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